Word of the Day | liability

By The Learning Network

liability •\ˌlī-ə-ˈbi-lə-tē\• noun

1. the state of being legally obliged and responsible
2. an obligation to pay money to another party
3. the quality of being something that holds you back

The word liability has appeared in 3,280 New York Times articles in the past year, including on Oct. 8 in “In This Election, Obama’s Party Benches Him” by Jonathan Martin:

CHICAGO — When he soared to victory by almost 10 million votes in 2008, President Obama won in states like Virginia that Democratic candidates had not captured since 1964. He was trumpeted as a transformational leader who remade American politics by creating a new electoral map and a diverse voter coalition to shape the Democratic Party for the 21st century.

But for now he has been reduced to something else: an isolated political figure who is viewed as a liability to Democrats in the very states where voters by the thousands had once stood to cheer him.

The Word of the Day and its definitions have been provided by Vocabulary.com and the Visual Thesaurus.

Learn more about the word “liability” and see usage examples across a range of subjects on the Vocabulary dictionary.

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cody sms October 20, 2014 · 10:57 am

in this picture it looks like a city full of people that are walking around from store to store. also there is some homeless people. the peoples pants look dirty so i am inferring that they don’t own much money.

cody sms October 20, 2014 · 11:05 am

In this picture it looks like a city full of people that are walking around from store to store. There is some homeless people. The people’s pants look dirty so I am inferring that they don’t have much money.